Eredin's body began to tremble, his armor clinking with metallic chimes.
He couldn't forget that one blow—the slash that had cleaved through both Francesca and the distant rainbow-streaked sky.
In such a confined space, he knew no one could stop this man.
Run! He had to run! Run, run, run, run, run, run!
The commander of the Wild Hunt acted on primal instinct. His knees gave out, and miraculously, he slipped free from the crushing grip of Lann's hand—so heavy it felt like a mountain.
He realized this was a golden opportunity. Half-crawling, half-scrambling, he rushed toward the bedroom doors—leaving his own king behind to face the lion from another world.
[Bang!]
With no response for far too long, the bedroom doors burst open under a powerful shockwave. The grey-haired elven sage stormed in with his staff raised, only to be greeted by a panicked Eredin.
"Avallac'h, that's him—that's the Elder Blood!"
There was a flicker of relief on Eredin's face—yet within his pupils, what reflected back was Avallac'h's look of sheer terror.
Behind him, the Child of the Elder Blood opened his palm.
In that moment, a chaos of energy rivaling that of lakes and seas surged forth from a space no larger than a single person. The very air around them swelled under the pressure, and before any sign appeared within the casting circle, an invisible shockwave had already begun spreading outward.
For the World of Aen Elle—the land sealed off for years—this was, at long last, a fresh injection of energy from the outside world.
[Aard Sign - Far-Reaching Aard - Aard Intensity - Shock Wave]
No magical burst, just a standard, "by-the-book" Sign—and yet the power it unleashed was staggering.
A cone of glacial frost erupted from Lann, blasting out through the doorway. In an instant, an invisible hand drained all the heat from the room, as though a mountain giant—tormented by endless winters—were hungrily sucking warmth from the air.
The relief still lingering on Eredin's face froze over—literally—turning him into a glittering ice sculpture in the very pose of flight.
The final member of the Wild Hunt, its commander—Eredin Bréacc Glas—perished in that moment.
His purpose to Lann's mission had been fulfilled.
Avallac'h let out a furious roar, and a sapphire-blue protective shield emerged from the void, tightly encasing him.
He wanted to retaliate—but the glacial blast had already surged past him and poured into the palace. The guards at his side turned into glittering works of art, just like Eredin. Even the walls and the palace structure were swept up in the aftermath.
"Has the White Frost arrived?!"
Elsewhere in the palace, clueless guards and servants saw the ice spreading beneath their feet. Even from two corridors away, they could feel the bone-chilling cold seeping through.
They cried out in despair, "Why so soon? How could the White Frost have come so soon?!"
"Your Majesty! Lord Avallac'h! Please save us!!"
Lann walked toward the very person the elves were begging for help—who had just finished dispelling his magical shield behind him.
Avallac'h staggered slightly. "Not a unicorn… You're the Elder Blood? Wait—let him go!"
The grey-haired sage shouted angrily, but the man before him—the Child of the Elder Blood—didn't even glance back.
Avallac'h watched as he placed his hand on the shoulder of their leader, and then emerald light enveloped both of them.
That familiar ripple stung at his senses—it was the power the entire Aen Elle had yearned for over the past century: the power of space-time traversal.
But the flash vanished as quickly as it came—and nothing remained in its wake.
…
Lann held his captive tightly, making sure the spatial distortion didn't tear him away.
The white mist around them quickly cleared—and in the next moment, Lann saw Ciri exhale in relief.
"Were you worried about me?"
Ciri gave a soft snort and focused her gaze on the figure in Lann's grip. The children had been about to rush toward their father, but now, sensing the presence of the Alder King, they hesitated—shrinking back behind Ciri instead.
"Worried about you? Hardly. And him… that's the one who's been threatening us all along, isn't he?"
Lann nodded. His eyes dropped slightly, just in time to see the Alder King gazing at Ciri in a daze.
"Lara?" the Alder King murmured, his eyes glossy—side effect of the drugs. For a brief moment, Ciri's silhouette seemed to overlap with someone in his memories.
But he quickly shook his head and muttered regretfully, "No… you're just a Dh'oine. But your eyes… they're just like hers."
"So you're another Elder Blood?"
Ciri's face darkened.
She had learned the Elder Speech during her magical training—so she knew exactly what "Dh'oine" meant. It was a term of contempt the elves used for humans.
The elves on the Continent used it all the time—Francesca had, back when she was still so proud.
But now it seemed their otherworldly kin were even more arrogant than they were.
Lann's expression hardened as well. He reached into his inventory and took out a pair of dimeritium shackles. With a click, he locked them onto the Alder King's wrists and ankles. The surge of dizziness and sharp pain made the elf groan in anguish once again.
"You've surprised me, Elder Blood," the Alder King said, now thrown to the ground by Lann. His wounds had reopened and begun bleeding again, yet his tone grew calm once more.
"You've already mastered space-time traversal… How did you do it? What did you rely on?"
Lann gently patted Ciri's hair, then pulled out a leather muzzle and slapped it over the Alder King's face—shutting that elegant mouth for good.
Now that voice could finally be silenced.
"Don't be surprised," Lann said, watching the Alder King grow visibly angry, though unable to utter a sound. "Because soon… you'll be even more surprised."
...
The elven guards pounced on the spot where the Alder King had just vanished, kneeling and fumbling around in confusion.
Avallac'h stood watching them, his face ashen.
It was the Elder Blood. The Elder Blood had truly appeared.
And with just a single gesture, he had forced Avallac'h into near-total defense.
Which meant… Eredin hadn't been lying. His Red Riders really had been annihilated by this one man.
But why? Why did the Elder Blood possess such overwhelming power?
"Do something, Lord Avallac'h!" someone pleaded behind him.
Avallac'h took a deep breath. Now wasn't the time for idle speculation. Their leader had been captured!
"Mobilize all soldiers. Full armor. Prepare for battle!"
The elven sage spoke with grim resolve.
With the Alder King gone, he was now the only elven sage left in the Aen Elle. None could rival his authority. Several elven officers who had rushed to the scene responded immediately and turned to gather their troops.
Avallac'h raised his hand, and the ice sculpture of Eredin—still frozen in a fleeing pose—floated into the air. The elf inside was long dead, but the body was still of great use to Avallac'h.
He swept like a storm to the unicorn enclosure, where the majestic, horned beings scattered before his presence.
With a flick of his wrist, the frozen statue of Eredin crashed to the ground in front of them.
The hatred in those intelligent eyes was unmistakable.
Suddenly, a cold, alien consciousness surged into Avallac'h's mind. He knew what it was immediately—and let down his defenses to allow it in.
[Is that the "Hawk"? Did you kill him just to ally with us?]
The voice in his mind was as clear as spring water.
[And that spatial disturbance just now—what was it? Are there more of our kin here?]
Avallac'h turned and locked eyes with the tallest unicorn, letting out a quiet snort. "So now you're finally willing to speak to us?"
[You killed the Hawk.] the unicorn leader replied.
As the leader of the Wild Hunt, Eredin had not only raided other worlds—he also hunted unicorns in this one, harvesting their materials to expand his forces. Among all the Aen Elle, he was the one the unicorns hated most. "The Hawk" was the name they used for him.
Avallac'h had a name of his own too. The unicorns called the cunning sage "the Fox."
Avallac'h studied the unicorn carefully, as if trying to discern truth from falsehood. But though unicorns were no match for him in combat, their mastery of telepathic magic far exceeded his own.
That meant mind-reading spells were useless here—and typical elven cues or expressions meant nothing to unicorns either.
"I'll say this once—I have no patience left," Avallac'h said coldly. "From now on, you answer whatever I ask. Do whatever I say."
"If you hide even the slightest thing—if you resist in the slightest—then I'll saw off your horns, strip your hides, and wipe the unicorn race off the face of the world. Understood?"
True anger appeared on the unicorn leader's face.
[Without us, your people would have perished too!]
But Avallac'h let out a sharp, scornful laugh, the kind that came from fury. His expression made the unicorn leader slowly quiet down.
[What happened?]
"I'll be the one asking questions—you'll be the one answering them."
Avallac'h's face darkened. "First: which world did you go to? What did you encounter there? And why did you return so battered and broken?"
Unicorns could clearly perceive the emotions of those around them—and Avallac'h, at this moment, made no effort to hide his fury. It left the unicorns no choice but to answer.
[We went to a world where another branch of your people resides—it was the closest one.]
[Because of your relentless hunts, we were forced to flee with our young, taking the risk of crossing dimensions to protect them. That crossing consumed a tremendous amount of energy.]
[But the new world was even more dangerous. We couldn't control our landing site and ended up in Dh'oine territory—only to be hunted down by their army.]
The unicorn leader lowered his head.
[One by one, our kin fell, until only the few you see now were left.]
[Cornered, with arrows aimed at us from all sides, we had no choice but to flee again—and that's when we encountered you.]
Avallac'h inhaled sharply. "The humans who hunted you… did one of them have golden hair, golden eyes, and wield the power of space-time?"
The unicorn leader looked at him in disbelief.
[How do you know that?]
Of course. Avallac'h fell silent in thought.
He could feel the spatial ripples caused by dimensional travel—there was no reason the Elder Blood, a being specialized in space-time, wouldn't feel them as well.
The one who had nearly wiped out the Red Riders three years ago… he had probably been looking for an opportunity to strike back at the World of the Aen Elle all this time. Perhaps he lacked the strength for interdimensional freedom—or maybe he had no coordinates to reach this world. Which would explain the delay—until these unicorns appeared.
Avallac'h clenched his jaw. "You brought him here!"
The unicorns looked at each other in confusion.
The elven sage took another deep breath. What mattered now wasn't rage—but remedy.
He pointed to Eredin's frozen sculpture. "There might be a spatial coordinate embedded in his body. Can you sense it?"
Avallac'h didn't understand the precise mechanism behind Elder Blood's power. But for him to appear—so conveniently—in the Alder King's private chambers, there had to be a reason.
And in all the World of the Aen Elle, the only one who had ever made contact with the Elder Blood… was Eredin.
If there was someone compromised, it could only be him.
The unicorn leader closed his eyes. After three breaths, he opened them again.
[Yes, we can.]
"Good." Avallac'h clenched his teeth hard.
"I'll bring you to the remnants of the Aen Elle's dimensional gate. I want you to use all your strength to open the largest possible interdimensional portal—and then reverse-locate it to the one who left a mark on him. Can you do that?"
The unicorn leader still harbored resistance toward the Aen Elle. Rejection was the first thing that appeared in its eyes. But the rage radiating from Avallac'h only intensified, as if he might, in the next second, reduce the unicorn before him into a bloody mist.
In the end, the unicorn could only nod, begrudgingly.
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